Employees want compensation for long commutes in RTO situation: According to professional recruitment consultancy Robert Walters, U.S. professionals spend 1-5% of their annual salaries on commutes alone. Unsurprisingly, 60% of employees believe commutes are the most important expense employers can subsidize, and 74% name commutes as a major factor when considering a new job. Yet, 88% of workers don't receive any commute support from their employers.  Flexibility continues to be a priority, with Robert Walters' data showing 35% of professionals are willing to take a lower-paying job for the increased ability to work remotely. Meanwhile, less than 2% of employees are willing to commute longer than two hours, and 56% won't travel for any longer than 45 minutes. It seems managers are aware of the retention risks: Robert Walters found that 40% of managers are thinking about implementing a "hushed hybrid" policy, allowing their team members to quietly work from home.  Other solutions may include offering transit passes or commuting and parking subsidies, or even just allowing people to travel to the office outside of the typical nine-to-five hours.  Source: EBN 3/18/25

Google settles pay discrimination claim:  Google will pay $28 million to put to rest allegations it pays and promotes certain nonwhite employees less than their white and Asian colleagues. The class settlement, which garnered preliminary approval from a Santa Clara County Superior Court judge last week, resolves claims that workers identifying as Latino, Native American, and other ethnicities were paid less than white, Asian, and Asian American employees for substantially similar work.  As part of the deal, Google will also work with a labor economist and industrial and occupational psychologist to review its annual pay equity audits and process for determining the levels at which workers are hired, Gunn Coble LLP said in a statement. The suit was filed by Ana Cantu in 2021. According to the complaint, Google uses a common organizational and pay structure establishing compensation ranges based on employees' job levels and positions. However, Cantu says, Google uses a hiree's salary history to determine the new employee's pay and job level while at the same time limiting merit and promotion-related raises to a percentage of the previous salary. Notably, Cantu points to a leaked 2022 employee pay spreadsheet showing that nonwhite employees reported lower compensation.  Source: Law360 3/17/25

Is there enough talent for AI related jobs? Findings from Bain & Company revealed that AI-related job postings have surged by 21% annually since 2019, with compensation for such roles increasing 11% in the same period. In the United States, Bain forecasts that one in two AI jobs could be left unfilled by 2027, as job demand could reach more than 1.3 million in the next two years, while supply will only reach less than 645,000. The gap in AI talent is seen as a key barrier for implementing generative AI at work, according to 44% of executives in Bain's report. Upskilling is also the focus of organizations in LinkedIn's APAC-focused report, where 78.3% of the respondents ranked helping employees build new skills as a top priority for them in 2025.  Among the top skills that they are prioritizing include AI skills (73.5%) as well as communication and collaboration (77%).  Source: HR Director 3/5/25

The workday is getting shorter and more productive:  While the average workday is about 36 minutes shorter than in recent years, it is also 2% more productive, according to a report from ActivTrak Productivity Lab. ActivTrak used anonymized user activity behavior recorded from 2022 through 2024 for its dataset, representing 218,900 employees across 777 companies. An average productive session increased from 20 minutes to 24 minutes, according to the report, while 70% of employees surveyed also reported healthy work patterns — the highest level in three years, ActivTrak said. Remote-only workers led the way in productivity compared to other worker types, according to the data, with productive sessions of 29 minutes or more.  According to the report, AI adoption sees an upward trend: 58% of employees now use AI tools – a 107% increase. The average daily AI tool usage increased 48%, with employees spending nearly 10 mins per day using a variety of AI tools. ChatGPT is the most common at 27%, more than twice as popular as the next most-used tool.  AI usage doesn't lead to shorter workdays: AI users show consistently longer workdays (+8 mins) and lower focus time (-27 mins). AI tool users also show more collaboration (+17 mins) and increased multitasking (+8 mins).  Source: HR Dive 3/17/25

New AI charges alleging discrimination against deaf applicant:  Intuit and a human resources technology vendor violated federal and state law by turning away a deaf job applicant after interviewing her using artificial intelligence-based video technology that puts disabled and nonwhite applicants at a disadvantage, the American Civil Liberties Union allege. The ACLU said it filed complaints against Intuit and HireVue Inc. with the Colorado Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, accusing the companies of failing to promote a deaf and Indigenous woman in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Title VII, and Colorado law. According to the ACLU, the applicant, identified as D.K., was required to apply for a seasonal manager role using HireVue's video interview platform, which uses technology to generate transcripts of applicants' spoken responses. The artificial intelligence technology is biased against nonwhite and deaf speech patterns, the ACLU said, which drove the companies to disqualify D.K. after declining to grant her an accommodation for the interview. The complaint stated that D.K. speaks with a deaf accent, and that it's unlikely the HireVue technology can accurately recognize and analyze her speech, causing it to hand deaf job hopefuls lower scores. It also claimed the technology is likely to hand lower scores to nonwhite applicants through its use of automated speech recognition technology based upon different speech patterns, word choice, and accents.  Source: Law360 3/19/25